Let's look for a moment at a
verse of scripture from Lamentation, the book of Lamentation. I've been reading to you tonight
about the sufferings of our Lord, and I believe that Jeremiah wrote
of this hour of suffering and substitution. in Lamentation
1, verse 12. Lamentation 1, 12. He says, Is it nothing to you,
all ye that pass by? You know something of his sufferings. It wasn't done in a corner. That's
what Paul said to the ruler. Behold and see. If there be any
sorrow like my sorrows, he was called the man of sorrows, acquainted
with grief. Is there any sorrow like my sorrow, which is done unto me, wherewith
the Lord hath afflicted me?" It pleased the Lord to bruise
him, to afflict him. He has afflicted me in the day
of his fierce anger." God's fierce anger fell upon
Christ, the same anger of God with which he destroyed the world
of Noah with water. The same anger fell upon Christ that fell upon Sodom. in the
form of fire and brimstone. This is the same anger that went
through the land of Egypt and destroyed the firstborn in every
home. And now me, Christ said, the
Lord hath afflicted me, his beloved son, in his fierce anger. And you know why? Because all
of the sins of all of God's people, of all generations, at that moment
met in Christ, in His body and soul. He bore all the griefs and all
the sorrows and all of the sins of all of His people. He was
their substitute. The scripture says in Isaiah,
the Lord laid on him the iniquity of us all. He said in verse 10 of Isaiah
53, he made his soul an offering for sin, not just his body, but
his soul. In verse 11 he said, my servant
shall justify many, for he shall bear their iniquities. He who knew no sin, Paul wrote,
was made sin for us. And Peter said, who his own self
bear all our sins in his body on the tree. The second Adam,
Jesus Christ, is the substitute bearing all the sins of all his
people. Now I want two or three other
scriptures. First, Romans 5. Romans chapter 5, verse 18 and
19. Romans 5, verse 18. Therefore, it just said, by one
man's sin, death, entered the world and came upon
all men. Then he said in verse 18 here,
Therefore as by the offense of one judgment came upon all men
the condemnation, even so by the righteousness of one the
free gift came upon all men under justification of life. For by
one man's disobedience the many were made sinners, so by the
subjection obedience, suffering, sacrifice of one, shall the many
be made righteous. First Corinthians 15. First Corinthians
15, verse 21. Two Adams now. The first one
created by God, placed in the Garden of Eden. By him we died. Second Adam, the Lord from heaven
substitute. In 1 Corinthians 15 verse 21,
for since by man came death, by man, by man came also the
resurrection of the dead. For as in Adam all, everyone
died, so in Christ shall all who are in Christ be made alive. Turn over to the next page in
verse 47. Now that first man is of the
earth earthy. That first man, that man in whom
we were created and in whom we were observed and in whom we
stood and in whom we fell and by whom we became sinful. First man is of the earth earthy,
that's where God God made him out of the earth. The second
man was made from the earth. He's the Lord from heaven. And
as is the earthy, such are they that are earthy. And as is the
heavenly, such are they also that are heavenly. And as we
have borne the image of the earthy, by God's grace, through his sacrifice,
through his suffering, through his obedience, through his death,
by his blood, we shall bear the image of the heavenly. And that's
what I'm preaching on tonight from Matthew 27, if you'll go
over there with me, Matthew 27. Christ Jesus the Lord, our substitute. It says in, Paul wrote in Hebrews,
as Let me read it to you. Listen to this. He said in Hebrews, as much as the children are partakers
of flesh and blood, Jesus Christ, our substitute, also himself,
likewise, took flesh and blood, that through his sacrifice, through
his suffering, through his death, he might destroy Him that had
the power of death, the power of death that rested on us, was
settled right here. Right here in our text tonight.
Our substitute stood in our place. Alright, let's look at this text. First, verse 26. Matthew 27,
26. Then Pilate, then released he Barabbas
unto him. He released Barabbas. Now here's
the whole gospel out here in this one statement. When our
Savior came into this world and took our place in bondage, we
were let go. We were released. That's right.
When he was arrested and came under the bondage for us in our
place as a sinner, we were set free. Let him go. I found a ransom. When justice apprehended Christ,
right here, when justice laid hold of him and apprehended him,
see, he's our substitute now. I've been reading that in all
these scriptures. When justice apprehended Christ, we were set
free, right there. That's right. When Christ Jesus
was bound, when they bound his hands, and brought him before
the courts of justice, we were free. Loosed. They bound him
and loosed us. That's right. Payment, God's
justice, cannot twice demand. First at my bleeding shirt in
substitute's hand, then again in mine. When justice laid hold
of him and condemned him, we were acquitted, and everyone
in him represented by him, given to him, for whom he suffered,
bled and died, were acquitted. Read on. And when he scourged
Jesus, now what is a scourging? Well, it used to say back under
Jewish history and Roman history, whoever did it, that a scourging
was forty stripes save one. They'd take the person, the guilty
person, and strip his clothes from his back, take him out in
the public and tie him to a post, and they'd take a whip, and they
would lay 39 stripes on him, 40 save one, 40 save one. He never could go over 40, so
they'd give him 39. And those whips had in the end
of the whip bones, animal bones that raked across the skin. So
Christ Jesus, our Lord, was scourged. Pilate delivered him to be scourged,
to be scourged. Now people of favor and free
men of Rome were never whipped. They were sometimes beaten with
rods, but they were never subjected to this sort of humiliation and
pain. But Christ, the servant, publicly,
cruelly, severely, was scourged. He prophesied this. Turn back
one page to Matthew 26, verse 18 and 19. Matthew 26, verse
18. Our Lord said this in Matthew
26. He said to his disciples, he said there in Matthew chapter
27, verse 26, I mean, Matthew 27, verse Matthew 20, Matthew 20. I knew I had to hear something. Matthew chapter 20, verse 18
and 19. Here's where he prophesied that
scourging. Matthew 20, verse 18. Behold, we go up to Jerusalem,
and the Son of Man shall be betrayed unto the chief priests and to
the scribes, and they'll condemn him to death, and they'll deliver
him to the Gentiles. the soldiers, to mock and to
scourge and to crucify him. And the third day he arrives
again. But I tell you what this scourging
is. It's the chastisement of our peace. The chastisement of
our peace was upon him. By his stripes we're healed. He was whipped for us, the second
Adam. the second Adam. He was bound,
we were turned loose. He was scourged, and by his stripes
we were healed. Now back to the text and look
at verse 27. Then the soldiers of the governor
took Jesus into the common hall. That's a judgment hall. It's called here the governor's
house, but it's a judgment hall. It's a hall of judgment that's
magnificent. and large, terribly large. And they took him, Pilate, turned
him over to these soldiers. There was a whole band of them.
Some of the writers say there were 500 soldiers. You know,
when Judas came into the garden to arrest Christ, he had hundreds
of soldiers with him. They came to arrest Christ. But
all these men, and they were the vilest of men, the cruelest
of men, Roman soldiers. Roman soldiers. And they took
him into that judgment hall, and he says here, and they gathered
unto him the whole band of soldiers to heap their cruelty and hatred
upon him, our substitute. But like the thief on the cross,
if it were us, we could only say we're getting what we deserve.
But he's taking it for us. And he wrote about these people
in Psalm 22 through his servant David. He said in Psalm 22, the
psalm of the cross, there's none to help. Many bulls have compassed
me about. Strong bulls of Bashan have beset
me about. Dogs have compassed me about. The assembly of the wicked have
enclosed me, and I'm alone. You think about that. whole band
of soldiers, doing all they could to heap
humiliation upon this man. And so in verse 28, they stripped
him. They stripped him. Remember now, this is the second
Adam. Now the first Adam, when God created him, the first Adam
was a king. That's right, he was gloriously,
gloriously arrayed in holiness and righteousness. He had a spotless
veil of glory about him that enabled him to be in the presence
of God and to walk with God. Oh, he was arrayed in a beauty.
But he sinned. Our Father Adam sinned and he
was stripped. He was stripped of his holiness
and left a rebel. He was stripped of his glory
and subjected to shame. He was stripped of his power,
now he's weakened. He's stripped of his immortality
and now he's dying. So he reached down. Adam was stripped of everything
and he stands naked. And he reaches down and plucks
a fig leaf. offered a bovine, a couple or
three of them, and wrapped them around him to hide his nakedness,
cover his loins. That's what they did to our Lord,
the second Adam here. They stripped him. They stripped
him. I hid not my face from shame,
he said. He endured the cross, despising
the shame. As the first Adam was stripped,
and ashamed, and then clothed with the earth's protection. Our Lord Jesus Christ in that
soldier's hall was stripped naked, and then they took an old robe.
It says they stripped him and put on him a scarlet robe. And then it says in verse 29,
and then they plaited a crown of thorn. They plaited a crown
of thorns and put it on his head. Let me mention Adam again. Adam
was a king. Turn to Genesis 1. Let's read
something about this first man. This is the second man we're
talking about. Everything that first man came
through in his sins, the second man's got to endure in his restoration. Adam was clothed and restricted. Christ was stripped. Then Adam
had a crown. It says here he was a king in
Genesis 1, 26. Listen. And God said, let's make
man in our image. A king make him in his image. After our likeness. And let them
have dominion. over the fish of the sea, and
the fowl of the air, and the cattle, and over the whole earth,
over every creeping thing that creepeth on the earth, make him
a king with dominion. So God created man in his own
image, in the image of God created him. Male and female created
him, he them. God blessed them. God said, Be
fruitful, multiply, replenish the earth, subdue it, and have
dominion. over the fish of the sea and
the fowl of the air, over every living thing that moves on the
earth. You talk about a king with dominion. But he fell and
the crown dropped from his head as his holiness dropped from
his body. His crown fell to the earth and
then one day looking down at the earth He saw thorns and wires
and thistles coming up where that crown fell. It fell to the
ground and now instead of his controlling the creation, the
creation controlled him and brought forth thorns and thistles and
pained and distressed him. So your king will get your crown."
Where did he get it? They went to the fruit of Adam's
sin and fall and got a crown of thorns. And then they pressed
it down in his head, down in his brow. Pressed it down. I see him sitting
there now. His back, his back bleeding with
our stripes. His head Bleeding from the crown
of thorns, the fruit of our sins. God said to Adam, the fruit of
your labors will be thorns and bars. Christ wore them on his
head. And his nakedness covered with
a false mocking robe. And then they said, well, if
you're king, you've got a robe and you've got a crown, you need
a scepter. So they took a stick and gave
it to him. People said that's a reed. Well,
that's a pretty strong reed you can take and beat a man over
the head with. They took and gave him a stick. Now the first
Adam had a real scepter because he was a king. He reigned over
God's earth. He had a real scepter. But he
traded his scepter for a stick. Somebody said, In place of his
scepter, he had to get a stick to dig a hole and plant his garden. And then he had to get a stick
to fight off the beast, the wild beast that used to be his friends,
but he has to have something to protect himself from it. And
he used that same stick when he got to be an old man to walk
with him. And so the king has a stick,
and the second Adam. They gave him a stick. Oh, the
tragedy of this moment. And there he sits. And they say, Hail, King of the
Jews. Where did they put that stick?
In his right hand. Oh, humiliation. He stays with
his right hand. But that's the way it is. Adam
was a king, and he fell. And now disease. Invaded his
body. Dogs barked at him and bit him. The sun burns him. The rain covers
him. The rivers drown him. The thorns
draw blood from his hands. Bees sting him. Snakes bite him. His own heart besieges him. His
mind troubles him. He's the enemy of all creation.
He's no longer a king. He's crowned with thorns. And
they say in this to our second Adam, you have no kingdom. You
have no kingdom. You have no authority. You have
no power. You're rejected, therefore crucified. And then you know what they did
in verse 30? And they spit on him. They actually spit in his face. plucked out his beard and spit
in his face. Turn to Isaiah 50. Isaiah wrote
about this. In Isaiah 50 verse 6, listen. He said in verse 5 of Isaiah
50, The Lord hath opened mine ears, and I was not rebellious,
neither did I turn away, turn back. I gave my back to the smiters,
to the scourges. I gave my cheeks to those who
pulled out the hair. They took his beard and just
ripped it out of his face. Idiots, dogs. And I hid not my
face from shame and spitting. All of this suffering Our Lord
was enduring under the great anger of God against us. We deserved it, he didn't. To
be stripped of his clothes in front of all those foolish, wicked
people, and receive lashes on his bare back in public, to have
his beard plucked out by brutes and idiots, But there's nothing
more humiliating than to sit there and have those soldiers
walk by and clear their throat and spit in his face. And then Matthew 26, that's what
I was thinking about a while ago. They took that stick and
beat him in the head. Let's read that in Matthew chapter
26, verse 67. Listen to this. Matthew 26, 67. And in verse 60, it said, Then
did they spit in his face, and buffeted him, and others smote
him with the palms of their hands, slapped him. And they said, Prophesy
unto us now, Christ, who smote you? So there he sits, his back bleeding
with our stripes. his head crowned with the fruit
of our sins, his nakedness covered with a filthy robe, in his right
hand that awful stick, a mocking scepter, and his bleeding cheeks
where they plucked out the beard, and then the spittle running
down his face. And then it said they took him
after they'd mocked him. Verse 31. They took him after
they'd mocked him, took that robe off, put his own raiment. I don't know exactly why they
did that. I just know that the prophecy
in the Old Testament said they didn't tear his clothes or divide
him, but they cast lots for him. And that's, you know, men do
what they want to do, but to do what God ordained them to
do. And they put his clothes back
on him, his own raiment, and led him
away to crucify him. And as they came out, they found
a man of Cyrene, Simon by name. Him they compelled to bear his
cross. And when they were coming to a place, someone said they
were in such a hurry to get out there and nail him to that cross,
and he was falling under the weight of the cross. difficulty,
that they just pushed him aside and put the cross on this other
man to get on out there and get their evil work done. But they
came to a place called Golgotha. They'd had a lot of crucifixion
there, the place of the skull. He said a lot of skulls buried
there. And they gave him this paraphernalia,
vinegar mingled with gall that they gave to people sometimes
to dull the pain. And when he tasted that, he wouldn't
drink. Our Lord is giving himself totally
to the redemption of our sins, our redemption of our souls and
bodies by bearing our sins. And they crucified him, parted
his garments, casting lots that it might be fulfilled which was
spoken by the prophets. They parted my garments among
them, but upon my vesture did they cast lots. And sitting down
they watched him there. That's what I want to do for
the next five minutes or so, is sit there and watch him. All of this, the bleeding back,
the crown of thorns, the mocking, the humiliation, the agony and
suffering, and the spit upon him, all these things. Now they nailed him to a cross
between two feet. And they sat there and watched
him. I don't know what's going through their minds, but I know
what's going through mine right now. What do I see as I watch
him on that cross, going through all of this, the second Adam,
my Savior? Well, I'll tell you what I see.
I see the Son of God, the Son of Man, our Messiah, our substitute. upon whom I rest the whole of
my life in salvation. I cast loose entirely, completely
from all other hope. The one on that cross is my salvation
and my desire. Heaven is before me and he's
the door. Hell is beneath me and he alone
can deliver me. The law is against me, and he
alone can honor it. Justice has a claim on me justly. Only he can satisfy it and remove
it. Death awaits me, and only he
can give me relief from its sting. The grave is my destiny, as it
is the destiny of all men, unless he is my victory. That's what
I say. Secondly, I see in that man on
that cross and that second Adam bearing all this suffering, I
see the fulfillment of every Old Testament type and picture
and promise. There's the woman's seed bruising
the serpent's heel. There it is right there. Only
one. Not another one to come. That's it. There's Abraham's
lamb when he said to her, Isaac, my son, God will provide himself
a lamb. And when he put Isaac on that
altar, and God spoke from heaven, and Abraham turned, and there
was a ram. His head caught in the thorns
and thickets. There's my lamb, with crowns
on his head, crown of thorns. There he is, right there. just
exactly what Abraham saw. He saw the lamb, his head caught
in the thickets, covered with the crown of thorns. There's
the Passover lamb that Moses gave to Israel. The lamb died,
the son lived. There's the atonement, there's
the mercy. Thirdly, I see in this reading here, in this suffering
and agony, Is there any sorrow like my sorrow, any affliction
wherewith the Lord has afflicted me in his fierce anger? I see
on that cross and in all of this account of his sufferings, I
see in the death of Christ as nowhere else the character of
God, the full character of God. I see his love. Herein is love. Not that we love God. He loved
us and gave his Son to be the perpetuation for our sin. Herein
is love. Not that that cross. He gave his Son to be the perpetuation
for our sin. There's the mercy of God. But
God who is rich in mercy, for his great love wherewith he loved
us, even when we were dead in sin, quickened us together with
Christ. There's his mercy. There's his
holiness. God spared not his own son, but
delivered him up for us all. There's his wisdom. The old men
in Job's time sitting around wrestling trouble with this question. How can man be just with God? How can God be just and justify
the ungodly? There's your answer. Justice
is satisfying. Mercy and truth, righteousness
and peace. kissed each other, only at the
cross, nowhere else. I see the faithfulness of God,
the very basis of Abraham's faith, what God promised, God was able
in Christ to fulfill. And fourthly, as I sit and watch
him there, I see, and in this account here, the complete, utter,
absolute, rotten depravity of human nature. This is not just another man
they're beating up on, this is holiness personified. This is
a man who did no sin, committed no sin, knew no sin, went about
doing good, and they hated him because he was good. That's exactly
right. They hated him because of who
he was. And I see evil, evil, but you
know no man is as evil as he's capable of being. You aren't
and I'm not, thankfully. No human being is as evil as
a human being is capable of being, because we're totally depraved. We're
only, we are only as evil as God allows us to be. to accomplish
his purpose. That's right. You're only as
evil as God allows you to be to accomplish his purpose. That's
what the psalmist said over here in Psalm 76. He said, Surely
the wrath of man shall praise the Lord. See, these people that
did all this to our Lord, they did what they wanted to do. But
they did what God ordained to be done. That's right. And he says, the wrath of man
shall praise the Lord, and the rest of wrath he'll restrain. He holds it in check, just like
he holds that Pacific Ocean in the boundaries. If he stepped
back and let her go, the tidal wave would cover every city in
all the country. Come just so far and no farther.
And that's the way the evil is there in the human heart. It's there. Don't you mistake
that for a minute. You men can be a whole lot more
wicked than I. God restrains evil. That's what
I see. I see the love of God and the
hatred of humanity. I see the grace of God and the
evil of humanity. I see the love of God and the
mercy of God and the grace of God and the wisdom of God, but
I see how rotten we are. But I'll tell you the Fifth thing
I see that makes my heart glad, I see my hope of salvation. I
see my hope of salvation in Him, purposed, accomplished, promised, fulfilled. It's finished. And I rest my
hope like that. And that's what I plead for everybody
who has heard this message or will hear this message. Trust him. Believe him. That's what you read a while
ago. Christ in you, that's the hope
of glory. That's the only hope. And I tell
you, we sure need a hope. And it's not going to come from
anywhere down here. Out here. It's got to come from
here. At the cross. Aren't you glad there's a fountain
filled with blood drawn from Emmanuel's veins? That's the
thing about it. Number 222.